With the rapid development of automation technology and artificial intelligence, robots are becoming more and more common in the human environment and of increasing importance. In recent years, service robots have undergone rapid development, with cleaning robots as the main application. The cleaning robots cover a wide range, and may be classified into industrial and domestic robots according to the World Robotic Survey published by International Federation of Robotics (IFR). Among which, the amount of domestic floor cleaning robots, i.e. robotic vacuum cleaners, have been growing rapidly in recent years, and have become the mainstream product in the market, with an annual output of more than 2.5 million units. It is estimated that the global production value of cleaning robots will grow by six times, from 300 million US dollars in 2007 to 1.8 billion US dollars in 2014, showing great development potential.
However, since most domestic floor cleaning robots that are available today are designed to perform a cleaning operation by vacuuming, people operating such vacuum cleaning robots are generally troubled not only by the noise generated from the vacuum machines embedded inside the vacuum cleaning robots during operation, but also by their poor performance for removing gooey, tacky cruds that adhere to the floor. Therefore, the robotic device using electrostatic cleaning cloths are also very popular since it is favored by its low operation noise, low power consumption and compactness in size.
There are already many related studies available. One of which is a floor cleaning apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,092,699, entitled “Floor Cleaning Using Index Fabric Rolls in Removable Cassette”, in which the provided floor cleaning apparatus comprises: a handle; a housing mounted to the handle; and a cassette, detachably attached to the housing, being configured with a roller for dispensing a fabric. Operationally, a user is able to bring along the roller to rotate with the moving of the handle, and as the fabric is mounted on the roller that are pressed against a floor surface when the floor cleaning apparatus is used by the user to mop the floor, dirt and dust on the floor can be adhered onto the fabric whereas the fabric can be detached from the roller to be washed after each usage so as to be reused. However, the aforesaid floor cleaning apparatus is disadvantageous in that: the fabric had to be manually removed very frequently from the roller to be washed, and the fabric that is mounted on the roller to be rotate therewith may be unfastened or overstretched due to uneven force exerting on the roller that are going to cause poor cleaning performance.
Another such study is a cleaning device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,055,204, entitled “Cleaning Device”, in which the provided cleaning device comprise: a support pad having a planar side to be used for detachably securing an electrostatic cleaning sheet across the planar side; an elongated arm pivotally to the support pad; a rubber squeegee, secured to a side of the support pad opposite to the planar side. With the aforesaid device, not only certain surfaces such as a floor surface can be clean effectively using the electrostatic cleaning sheet, but also other surfaces that can not be cleans effectively by the electrostatic cleaning sheet, such as a glass window, can be clean effectively using the rubber squeegee. However, the aforesaid cleaning device is disadvantageous in that: the electrostatic cleaning sheet had to be manually removed and replaced very frequently, and the electrostatic cleaning sheet being fitted on the planar side of the support pad is not efficient for trailing and thus cleaning surfaces that are not planar surface or have grooves or recess formed thereon.
Further another such study is a self-moving vacuum cleaner disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,405B2, entitled “Self-Moving Vacuum Cleaner with Moveable Intake Nozzle”, in which the provided self-moving vacuum cleaner includes a vacuum cleaning device and a wiping device that is mounted on a planar plate attached to the rear of the vacuum cleaning device. Operationally, the floor to be cleaned will be vacuumed by the vacuum cleaning device first and then to be brushed by the wiping device, and thereby, any dirt or cruds that are not vacuumed can be picked up by the wiping of the wiping device. However, the aforesaid self-moving vacuum cleaner is disadvantageous in that: the dusting fabric that is attached on the wiping device for cleaning still had to be manually removed and replaced very frequently, and also as the side of the wiping device where the dusting fabric is attached to is a planar surface, the dusting fabric is also not efficient for trailing and thus cleaning surfaces that are not planar surface or have grooves or recess formed thereon. In addition, the vacuuming of the self-moving vacuum cleaner can also be very noisy.